Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak announced Friday that he tested positive for COVID-19.
“It was important to me to notify Nevadans as soon as possible of my positive COVID-19 test results. I am currently not experiencing any COVID-19 symptoms and I have returned to my residence to begin the quarantine and isolation process,” the Democrat said in a statement.
Carson City health officials interviewed the governor for a disease investigation because he tested positive there, according to the governor’s office. Contract tracing, or efforts to contact those who were recently in contact with Sisolak, is underway.
Sisolak is not experiencing any symptoms of the disease but did feel fatigue earlier in the week.
Symptoms of COVID-19 include fever, chills, and loss of taste and smell.
Sisolak said the positive result underscored the advice of public health officials.
“With my case, I want to underscore the importance of Nevadans to stay at home as much as they possibly can at this time. There were more than 1,800 new cases identified in Nevada yesterday and cases are growing at a rate of 1.3 percent or, 1,402 new cases per day,” he said.
Sisolak will work remotely and all his public events have been canceled.
He was last in his Carson City office on Nov. 12. All staff who work out of that office will work from home out of an abundance of caution.
Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont, meanwhile, said Friday he’s entering self-quarantine after a senior staff member tested positive for COVID-19.
“We are taking this case seriously and observing all protocols to keep the governor, his family, and all of our staff members and their families safe,” Lamont’s chief of staff Paul Mounds said in a statement.
“While this is the first case within our administration, tens of thousands of Connecticut residents have experienced COVID-19, and thousands of others have lost their lives. Even in an administration with consistent testing of all individuals who interact with the governor on a regular basis and wear masks at all times, this is a reminder that no testing regimen is foolproof.”
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, is also in isolation because one of his staffers recently tested positive.
Sisolak was the fifth governor to test positive, following Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt, and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine.
Several subsequent tests for DeWine, though, showed negative results. He later described the initial result as “a false positive.”
